Category: Photography

At Google I/O last week, we got a glimpse of new one-touch auto fixing of photos that would be coming to Google Photos both in the app and on the web. It seems that those auto fix suggestions are now starting to roll out.

Leveraging AI, Photos will now pop up a small banner on a photos to suggest a fix for that photo. The AI looks at the lighting quality, orientation and content of the photo and gives you the suggested fix. Tap the pop-up and you open a simple editor which shows you the updated photo. Long press the photo to see the original. If you like the suggested fix, save it and your photo in your Google Photos library is updated.

There is a new update to Snapseed for Android available in the Play Store that brings a few but nice improvements to the photo editing app. The update is version 2.6 for those keeping score at home and if you have the app already installed on your phone or tablet, you should get the OTA update in the next few days.

The first change is the addition of a blue filter to the Black and White filter of the app. This allows you to create high contrast B&W images by ramping up the blue while toning down the yellow. You don’t see the colors obviously in the black and white image but the effect creates the high contrast for your photo.

After disappearing over the weekend, the Nokia Camera app has returned to the Windows Phone Store under its new name. The Lumia Camera app for Windows Phone sports no new features (only bug fixes) but brings to a close one more app that was using the Nokia name in the store. Microsoft has been on a long process of renaming all of the “Nokia” apps to “Lumia” and the Nokia Camera app was one of the last remaining.

The update should have hit your Windows Phone already if you have the Nokia Camera app installed. If not you can go to the Store

Lumia Camera for Windows Phone

app on your Windows Phone then go to the More menu, Settings and then tap the “Check for Updates” button.

I’m personally a big fan of the Lumia Camera app as it gives you much more control of your photography than the built-in Windows Phone Camera app. I also find the Burst mode of the app to be great for capturing action shots or as I did this weekend, fireworks!

The Lumia Camera app is free and available now in the Windows Phone Store

Microsoft has released an update to the Lumia Creative Studio app for Windows Phone, brining back the popular Color Pop feature along with a few other enhancements that make this a pretty powerful photo editor. The new version, 6.3 for those keeping score, is in the Windows Phone Store now and, as with the other Lumia apps, is free to download to your Windows Phone.

The London-based Open Space Agency (OSA) has developed a 3D printed Lumia powered Telescope that allows virtually anyone to become a star gazer. The idea is simple: Using modern production technologies to bring astrophotography to anyone at a fraction of the cost of a traditional telescope.

The idea of the Lumia powered telescope is the brainchild of James Parr and he worked closely with Microsoft to develop the

Ultrascope (Photo courtesy of Open Space Agency)

Ultrascope. The Ultrascope is a fully automatic telescope that leverages to powerful 41MP camera of the Lumia 1020.

Called Ultrascope, and supporting devices such as the 41-megapixel Lumia 1020, it has the potential to completely reinvent astrophotography, making it possible to capture professional-grade celestial images, right from your back garden, for a fraction of the price of traditional space telescopes.

When fully assembled the Ultrascope stands 1m tall so it is reasonably compact for taking it to areas away from cities where light pollution is a challenge for astro photography.

Mr. Parr’s vision, which started 30 years ago as a child, is that anyone anywhere can be a part of a community that can explore the heavens from their back gardens without having to invest massive amounts of money to do so. Ultimately his vision for the Ultrascope has come to reality thanks to modern 3D printing and laser precision cutting techniques that are affordable to do.